c a r v e r *
Bentley, my best friend, recently had his appendix removed and he has to stay in the hospital for a few extra days because he lost a little more blood than he should have during surgery, his white blood cell count was up, which means infection somewhere, and he had a fever of 100.7. The thing is, though, he hates hospitals; he has anxiety about hospitals.
"I think my nurse is trying to kill me," Bentley mutters under his breath when I walk into his hospital room. "She almost 'accidentally' gave me too much pain medication, then she almost stabbed me with her needle earlier when she was trying to give me another IV."
I snort.
"It's not funny!" he says. "I wanna go home!"
"I know, bub, I know. Just a few more days, okay? Just a few more days and I'll take you home."
He nods and reaches for my hand. I comply and let him slide his fingers in between mine.
"Hello!" A new nurse says as she comes into the room with a little cart. She looks young, probably early-to-mid twenties. "I'm here to take some bloodwork so we can check your WBC count." (WBC- white blood cell).
Bentley nods and reaches for me. He also doesn't do very well with needles.
"Alright, Bent, don't fight it okay, just relax, it's all going to be okay," I say softly, leaning over him. "Just hold my hand, and focus on me,"
The nurse ties the rubber around his arm. "Can you make a fist for me?"
He does, and she starts feeling around his arm, looking for a vein good enough to draw from.
"I can't. I can't. I can't." Bentley starts, starting to breathe in and out heavily.
"Ssh, calm down, yes, you can," I say soothingly, brushing the hair from his face.
He shakes his head. "No, no, no, no, no,"
"The sooner you let her do this, the faster it will be over, bub."
A tear rolls down his cheek.
"I'm s-sc-sc-scared," he stammers.
"I know, but it's okay. I'm going to be right here, alright?" I say, stroking his cheek.
"You can relax your arm now, sweetie," the nurse says.
"Okay, I'm going to start now," she says.
He freezes.
"Hey, don't-don't tense up, okay? That's going to make it worse." I say softly.
He shakes his head again.
"It's okay," I say softly. "It's okay,"
"Sweetheart, can you relax a little bit? It's going to make this much easier for all of us, okay?" the nurse says softly, rubbing his arm a little bit. He nods.
"Hey, just look at me, I'm right here," I say. "Give me your hand,"
I take his hand, intertwining our fingers, and stroking his face with my free hand.
"You got this," I say softly, and, hopefully, soothingly.
She puts the needle in his arm and he immediately makes a move to tense up, but I make, perhaps the best, split decision. I lean over him and press my lips against his. He relaxes, almost immediately, letting me kiss him, and doing his best to kiss me back. When I pull away, he looks at me as the nurse pulls the needle out of his arm.
"That was precious!" she says. "I so CANNOT wait to tell my wife about that!"
I smile at her. Bentley is in a private room, so she doesn't pull the curtain, but closes the door. I look at Bentley.
"I love you," I blurt before I can stop myself. He looks up at me and meets my gaze; his eyes are wide in surprise.
"Hey," he says softly, reaching for me. "I love you too," he whispers.
I lean down and press my lips against his once more, softly.
"Good news, your WBC count is where it needs to be!" The nurse from earlier, Emilee, says as she comes back into the room. "If your temp. is back down, then you can go home!"
Which is good news, because he's already been in here for two weeks, first because of the extra blood loss, they wanted to monitor him, and then his WBC count has been high, as well as his temperature, the past five or six days. Well, his WBC wasn't high until about three days ago, but his temperature had been running high, or he was in extreme pain. Emilee comes back into the room with a thermometer and takes his temperature. 98.4. It's normal! He can go home!
"You, sir, are bustin' outta here!" Emilee says to Bentley.
"Finally!" he says excitedly. I grab both of his hands to help him sit up.
"But, before we can start the papers, we have to make sure that you can walk, okay?" Emilee says. He nods.
"What are you going to do the first time you stand up in nearly two weeks?" Emilee asks him as I gently help him sit up and pull his gown aside so I can adjust his belly wrap.
Bentley looks over at me. "Hug my best friend," he says. I smile softly, pressing my lips to his forehead. I grab his hands to steady him as he stands up, then I take a few steps back so he can walk around. He grabs hold of the pole for a second to steady himself, then he lets it go and walks over to me, wrapping his arms around me. I wrap my arms around him, pressing my lips to his temple.
"I'm so proud of you," I whisper in his ear softly.
He looks up at me, smiling. "Thank you," he says softly.
"Alright, you're good to get your papers! I'll go tell them to get it ready, then I'll come back and unhook you from all your wires, all right?" Emilee says, and we both nod. When she leaves the room, he reaches up, putting a hand on the back of my neck, and kisses my lips.
"I love you," he whispers.
"I love you, too," I tell him, looking into his eyes.
He kisses me again, softly.
I gently help Ben into my car, leaning over him to buckle him loosely.
"Are you still sore?" I ask him.
"Not a whole lot, but a little bit," he says softly.
He kisses my lips before I close his car door.
"Okay, now we head home," I say.
I take his hand in mine, pressing a kiss to his.
When I pull in the 'driveway' to my townhouse, I get out of the car and go over to Bentley's side. Slowly and carefully, I help him out of the car and to my front door, that's painted teal. He leans against me as I unlock the door, looking at me. When I get the door unlocked, I guide him in carefully, making sure to be easy. After we've gotten inside, I shut and lock the front door behind us. He turns to me, grabbing my arms, and pressing his lips to mine. I'm taken aback, simply because I didn't think he was going to kiss me in the entryway, but I kiss him back softly and slowly. I grab his legs and bend down a little to take him into my arms. He wraps his legs around my waist and I carry him up the stairs to my bedroom, where I lay him down on my bed. He smiles at me as I lay him down. It's about 8:30 PM now, and we both already ate dinner at the hospital, so I go and change into comfy clothes, he's already got his comfy clothes on, and I lay down beside him in the bed. He scoots closer to me, pressing his body against mine, and grabs my arm, wrapping it around himself. I smile and kiss his cheek softly before closing my eyes and falling asleep.
1/20/20
So pure!!
